Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to the witnesses today.
Ms. Widowski, there's a piece in your written presentation—and I recognize time didn't allow you to get to all of it. It's actually the very last paragraph on page 4, which I believe is article 7.1.1 of the OIE “Terrestrial Animal Health Code”. Based on the fact that it's in quotation marks, I'm assuming that's the actual article itself. Let me just read it for the record.
Animal welfare means how an animal is coping with the conditions in which it lives. An animal is in a good state of welfare if (as indicated by scientific evidence) it is healthy, comfortable, well nourished, safe, able to express innate behaviour, and if it is not suffering from unpleasant states such as pain, fear, and distress.
Based on that particular piece and 20 years of working in the animal behaviour field—and I don't want to give it a grade, if you will—if you were doing a report card and were making comments in it, in general across the country when it comes to animal welfare, based on that particular article, where do you see us?